What TS2 Hack Do You Regret Putting In Your Downloads Folder?

[Paden]

I'm just glad that I have everything subfoldered, otherwise I would have had to hunt for hours among all of the stuff I have in my game. What can I say, except for I love my custom content and wouldn't be able to play a vanilla game if my life depended on it.

[Spartle]

hrm... yep, subfolders.  I have those.  You do not want to see that mess.  But, they are all foldered, yeppers!  *hides face in shame*

[Paden]

Don't feel bad, I have over four hundred of them. I know some folks that have like a thousand and that's no exaggeration. They subfolder everything to be found in the game!

[Ruffnut]

how on earth do you subfolder? Maybe I can clean up my download folder XD

[Spartle]

Make a folder called, for example, MATY.
Then put every folder you made earlier containing hacks from that site into that main folder.

[MaryH]

I've read that after 2 layers of folders, the game slows down. So ideally you only have the main folder: "Hacks", and then a subfolder for each creator for the type of hacks: "Pescado" "Squinge", etc.

But what I do before I do anything is put everything into the folder named "Before install", extract it and run the compressorizor and the HCDU (Hack Conflict Detection Utility). The first shrinks the files and the second makes sure that any hacks will work with each other. Then I run the Download organizer to make sure that I don't have any duplicates.

After I do this stuff though: I put the downloads in either the folder they should be in, or make a folder for them.

This process does take time, but it saves it as well. The testimony to that is my game starts fast and runs well.

My downloads folder is 847 MB, with 6,472 files and 172 folders. Tiny by some other people's, but big enough for me!

[Ruffnut]

I gotta do a clean up in my folder, it's huge and needs cleaning...But My machine sis top slow to see what I need and what not >_>

[Paden]

I used Clean Installer to sort through my stuff when I first began to subfolder and now it's just habit to do it. Saves on pulling out my hair in frustration.

[madkitty]

How do you do this? Is there maybe a tutorial somewhere? Thank you...

[Paden]

Open the Clean Installer program from the icon on your desktop, choose the directory called "downloads". That will open the whole folder. Choose how you want things displayed by playing with the buttons at the top of the screen, like name, type, what have you. That will toss stuff into groups. Highlight the groups you want to subfolder, then right click and you'll get a submenu where at the bottom it will give you the option to move it to a folder and choose the new folder option. Name the subfolder, click and boom, it is moved to a new named subfolder that contains those items that you selected. Proceed to do that as you choose, dividing things as you see fit. But, and I can't stress this enough, keep recolours with the meshes because it just makes playing the game so much easier for you! Once that is done, go to your Sims game folder and clear out the cache files and it will then load properly. I found out the hard way that if you don't do that after subfoldering, it takes bloody forever to load...

And lest I forget to mention it, hacks will show up red highlighted, be it an object that is hacked or just a regular hack. Duplicate items will show up as pink highlighted. The program will also tell you what it is, such as floor, wall, object, hair, etc. Have fun! And yes, going through the effort now will save much more time and effort in the future.

[MaryH]

Thank you, Paden for the small tut on the Installer..I've got too many "unsorted" downloads that I just tossed in that folder, and haven't gotten around to sorting. This should help a little bit!

[MCRVamp]

I read somewhere that if you have certain expansion packs that sub-folders will not work (why I dunno).  But me being the computer illerate person I am I didn't bother with subfolders... I'm regretting it now, with over 13,000 files (almost 14,000) I have no idea what I have.

Guess if I ever decide to start over I'll give the subfolders a try, sounds like a lot less headache.

[Hammie]

I have just deborked my game. Here's the hack that was the root of the problem:
Smonaff's Ghost Hack. Fireballs falling from the sky, and children going ignorant and being taken by the social worker. (It wouldn't let them go to school and when it rained or snowed, the lot would crash) Everything's a-okay now though!

[caffeinated.joy]

I read somewhere that if you have certain expansion packs that sub-folders will not work (why I dunno).  But me being the computer illerate person I am I didn't bother with subfolders... I'm regretting it now, with over 13,000 files (almost 14,000) I have no idea what I have.

Guess if I ever decide to start over I'll give the subfolders a try, sounds like a lot less headache.

I have all EPs and SPs and use subfolders with no problem. Just as an FYI.

[mhbuck21]

The one I found was borking my game was Sunbathe anywhere. It was really cool to have them sunbathing as soon as spring arrived but the lag when changing to tan and back was criminal... I think I still have one sim left with the tan permanently on... I only have about 6 vampire friendly careers but no cc food. I really have very few hacks but tons of clothes and hair...
Mari